Summer is right around the corner, and we’re taking a look at the upcoming Summer 2018 anime’s newest and freshest titles! We’re starting our new season focus on the new anime, which never had an anime adaptation before. This means that we’re not including new seasons of old anime like Overlord III or Attack on Titan, nor new series from old franchises like Zoids Wild. Here are our seven picks:

Back Street Girls

Yakuza boss forces his underlings to go to Thailand to get a sex reassignment surgery in order to become “female” idols. That’s pretty much it, but we have a feeling it’s gonna be hilarious.

Banana Fish

Nature made Ash Lynx beautiful; nurture made him a cold ruthless killer. A runaway brought up as the adopted heir and sex toy of “Papa” Dino Golzine, Ash, now at the rebellious age of seventeen, forsakes the kingdom held out by the devil who raised him. But the hideous secret that drove Ash’s older brother mad in Vietnam has suddenly fallen into Papa’s insatiably ambitious hands—and it’s exactly the wrong time for Eiji Okamura, a pure-hearted young photographer from Japan, to make Ash Lynx’s acquaintance…

Banana Fish is the latest “old manga series” which got an anime adaptation over a decade after the series ended. Based on Akimi Yoshida’s bestselling manga, the original series ended in 1994. The manga is considered one of the old series which deserved an anime adaptation but never really got one.

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs

Fuyuzora Kogarashi has the ability to see supernatural, and has been possessed by ghosts since he was a kid. This has caused a lot of trouble in his life, but now he has learned to fight back against the evil spirits! Unfortunately, he’s now also very poor, homeless, and hoping for a happier, more normal, high school life. In his search for housing, he’s introduced to a very cheap boarding house called Yuragi Manor, which was formerly a popular hot springs inn. It’s so cheap because the house is haunted by the spirit of a high school student whose corpse was found there.

Kogarashi doesn’t think this is going to be a problem for him, and the rest of the house’s tenants appear to be sexy women. While relaxing in the hot springs, though, he finds there is an issue with his ghost-banishing plan; Yuragi Manor’s ghost is a 16-year-old girl named Yuna, who lives in his room. Kogarashi has no desire to hurt a ghost girl, and instead he ends up agreeing to help her to figure out her unfinished business. That way, she can move onto the afterlife before turning evil and falling into hell. Once it is clear that he is fine with Yuna, the other tenants reveal their own supernatural secrets—his life in Yuragi Manor is going to be far from ordinary!

In regards to the MMORPG Cross Reverie, Sakamoto Takuma boasted an overwhelming strength that was enough for him to be called the Demon King by the other players. One day, he gets summoned to another world with his appearance in the game. There, there are two people that insist “I am the real summon master.” Takuma gets slave-turning magic used for summoned beasts cast on him by the girls―

However, the peculiar ability “Magic Reflection” is invoked! The ones that were turned to slaves were the girls!

Takuma was bewildered. He’s the strongest magician but, he doesn’t have any social skills. Panicking, the first words that came out were the ones that he used inside the game role-playing the Demon King?! “I’m amazing you say? Of course I am. I am Diablo… The one feared as the Demon King!”

This is the story the Demon King (acting) that would soon inspire the world and his other world adventure that he plunges through with his absolute strength, raise the curtain!

Well, this is our obligatory isekai pick :)

Grand Blue

Among the seaside town of Izu’s ocean waves and rays of shining sun, Iori Kitahara is just beginning his freshman year at Izu University. As he moves into his uncle’s scuba diving shop, Grand Blue, he eagerly anticipates his dream college life, filled with beautiful girls and good friends.

But things don’t exactly go according to plan. Upon entering the shop, he encounters a group of rowdy, naked upperclassmen, who immediately coerce him into participating in their alcoholic activities. Though unwilling at first, Iori quickly gives in and becomes the heart and soul of the party. Unfortunately, this earns him the scorn of his cousin, Chisa Kotegawa, who walks in at precisely the wrong time. Undeterred, Iori still vows to realize his ideal college life, but will things go according to plan this time, or will his situation take yet another dive?

This is one of the season’s dark horses, and it’s certainly a promising one. Definitely don’t confuse this with Granblue Fantasy.

High School Girl

The year is 1991 and 6th grader Yaguchi Haruo only has video games to live for. He’s not popular in school and he’s neither handsome, funny, nice nor even friendly. The only thing he has going for him is that he is good at video games. One day at the local arcade, he plays Oono Akira, a fellow classmate but who’s popular, smart, pretty and a rich girl that absolutely destroys him at Street Fighter II. Not only does he lose to her 30 times in a row, he can’t beat her at any game. Haruo can’t seem to shake Akira off as she follows him from arcade to arcade everyday after school and beats him every time. As weird as it sounds, the odd couple begins a strange bond and friendship.

I must admit that I’m a fighting game guy. I also started fighting games in arcades as a kid, with games like Street Fighter II. I cannot explain how hyped I am for this anime.

Muhyo to Rouji no Mahouritsu Soudan Jimusho

Are you a victim of unwanted spirit possession? Is there a ghost you need sent up and away…or down to burn for all eternity? If the answer is yes, then you need Muhyo and Roji, experts in magic law. Serving justice to evil spirits is their specialty.

Yet another one of the season’s dark horses, and like Grand Blue, this one also looks promising. If you like supernatural anime or mystery thrillers, this one might just be for you.

So, those are our picks. Tune in again tomorrow as we continue our look into the Summer 2018 season for our picks for returning anime and spin-offs.